Coal-pocket.



G.D.CURTI&

COAL POCKET.v

APPLICATION FILED JAN.16,1909

1,121,328 Patented Deo. 15,1914.

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GROVE D. CURTIS, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

COAL-POCKET.

Specifica-tion of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 15, 1914.

Application filed January 16, 1909. Serial No. 472,723.

To all lwhom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, Gnovn D. CURTIS, a citizen of the United States, andresident of New York, in the county and State of New York, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Coal-Pockets, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to coal pockets, and its novelty consists in theconstruction and adaptation of the parts, as will be more fullyhereinafter pointed out.

In the ordinary coal pocket, the coal is brought to the top of thestructure, either by a line of cars, a series of derricks, or othersuitable carriers, and dumped into the interior from which it iswithdrawn at the bottom, or the lower side edge, through appropriategates, into the wagons by which it is delivered to the consumers.

The ordinary coal pocket as now constructed is in effect a prismatic boxwith outlet ports along its lower edges. `When one of these ports isopened a flow of coal is induced toward it, and after it has continuedfor a short time Vit will be `noticed that a channel has been formeddirectly through the mass of coal from its top toward the outlet.Furthermore it will be noticed that the coal does not flow steadilytoward the outlet but practically falls inwardly into this channel firstchoking it up and then gradually clearing up as the coal is removed frombeneath. This movement is accompanied by a sort of vortex or rotarymovement resembling the similar movement which takes place in a mass offluid discharged from a small bottom orifice. This vortex movement tendsto grind the coal and in my opinion is largely responsible for theformation of dust therein. By dust I mean coal of such small size as tohave substantially no commercial Vvalue and to be of a size below thatof any of the marketable grades. When coal falls any distance andstrikes a hard surface it is fractured and splinters and formed intosmaller pieces but it is not ground to powder and does not form dust.This action is relatively unimportant because the smaller pieces arepractically all marketable but dust is not and as the dust has been paidfor in paying for the weight of coal purchased and as the owner of thepocket usually does not deliver such dust, he secures no reimbursementfor such outlay and it is highly important that the formation of suchdustv ing my invention and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of the same onthe plane ofthe line 2-2 in Fig. 1 and a top plan view of the partsbeneath the section plane.

There is represented in the drawing a coal pocket comprising in effect arectangular box made of any suitable size and material and which has abottom 10, upright side walls 11 and a sloping roof or cover 12. Abovethe center of the pocket or elsewhere conveniently arranged is a railwayindicated at 13 on which trucks 14:, or other carriers are adapted to bemoved to bring the coal to the pocket. This part of the device isusually protected by a supplemental shed or roof 15.` A door 16 isplaced at any convenient situation to afford access to the lowerinterior of the pocket. The bottom` is usually made sloping in places asat 17 toward outletapertures adapted to be closed by suitable gates ofvalves indicated at 18 and which may slide in a grooved frame indicatedat 19, or be supported and guided in any suitable manner. Extendingoutwardly from the outlet apertures are screen chutes 19 made of wovenwire netting or similar foraminous material and provided at their loweredges with backwardly extending chutes 2O adapted to guide the dischargeof the dust and screenings away from the end of the chute 19a.

The parts above described form no part of my invention.

Arranged in a substantially vertical position within the pocket arevertical conduits having upright walls 21. For the sake of economy ofconstruction, I prefer to make these conduits with four sides and usethe side walls 11 of the pocket as one of the wallsy of the conduit, butit is obvious that these `conduits may have any number of sides andplaced anywhere within the pocket. Arranged at suitable intervals alongthe upright walls 21 are openings 22 adapted to be closed by valves orgates 28 opening inwardly. I prefer tO use and I have shown in thedrawing a simple form of valve consisting of a flat piece of suitablematerial, secured to the wall 21 above the corresponding opening 22 andfastened in place by a hinge 240, and which piece is of a sizesufficient to overlap the lower edge 0f the opening 23 and so close it.This vform of valve normally closes its opening by gravity and isreadily made and put in f It will be noted that the openingsm along thewalls are so arranged that those y place.

' a portion of the framework 28 and thus prevent access to the shelf 25and serve as a lguide toward the interior of the pocket or it can be'swung to the position indicated in dotted outline in Fig. 1 to restagainst anfotherportion of the framework 29, to permit access to theinterior. ln the construction shown there are two of ythese deliectorsand when in one "position vthey `guide the coal into the conduits andwhen in the `'other position they guide the coal into the interior ofthepocket.

Y v The conduits arepreferably made of such size that the coal can'surround them, eX-` cept,fof course, as tofthat side which vis identicalwith a portion ofthe side wall of the pocket.

ln use, the coal is vfirst dumped into the pocket atv the top center,the guide plates 26 being swung inwardly so as to constitute with theshelves 25 chutes to guide the coal into-the conduits which are first`lled in order that the lcoal within them may press against the valves23 to keep them shut. When the conduits are filled lthe hinged guideplates 26 are disengaged-and allowed to swing outwardly to form a.hopper to guide the coal into the center-of the pocket and this centralportion of the pocket is then filled. The discharge gate 18k of one ofthe conduits is then opened. the coal `to be drawn off from that conduitbutl on account of its relatively small cross sectional area'theburrowing or grinding action above referred to doesk not take place, andthe coal falls gently and evenly substanti'allyfwithout any other thanvertical motion. So long as sufficient coal remains against the insideofone of the valves 23 to keep it shut, this valve prevents any movementof the coal within the pocket (outside of theconduits) restingagainstgsuch valve, but just'so soon asthe coal falls below the level ofthe valvejthe latteris pushed yopen by the pressure of the coal inthepocket Y and a portion yof'such 'coal escapesj through the valveandfalls by gravityon top of the descending column of coal inthe conduit,and this vaction,continues until practically y charged.

from the conduit the valve at the next lower This allows f all ofthecoall in the pocket above the level of thel valve aperture has thus beendis- As the coal continuesto be drawn level is opened and the coalat'that level similarly is discharged until, as the operation iscontinued, the pocket practically becomes empty."

The 'operation it will be noted consists mainly in continually drawingthecoal in the pocket frompthetop of the mass so that the; movingc'oalis noty subjectedv to the Alateral pressurel ofthey mass of coalbelow thetop layer and the lateral pressure of the coal in a layerequivalent to the depth of one of the apertures 22 is negligible. Shouldit -be found that dust was being yformed the *mischief can be remediedlby decreasing the size of the apertures and increasing their Si number.The invention therefore results from and is dueto the discovery ,thatthe dust-is' formed by" the :grinding-action of the mass-of coalsurrounding and bearing against the column of moving coal ordinarilydrawn from the pocket, which grinding action, it will be observed, willbe prevented by segregating the-moving column from contact with themass, and always supplying said column from the ltop lof thev mass.

It, is obvious. that in designing an vap- -paratus :in accordance withmy invention, the cross-sectional areaof lthe vertical dischargeconduits m'ust be planned with due regard to the size of thev vcoalwhich vis to be used in the apparatus.' v'For instance,

with egg coal, the cross-sectional area would i be larger than withpea-coal. The ideal constru'ctionfof course, 4would be to provide aconduit with :a cross-sectional area just large enough top'ermitthe;particular size of coal to pass freely through it, one lumpafter another. But thev discharge under these conditionswould be tooslow, `and A' therefore the lconduit will be madel of Asuch size as torapidlyv discharge withoutnpermitting undue klateral displacement of thelumps in vtheir passage.

What I claim as new is l. A coal holding and delivering pocket havingside walls provided with'outlet openings, vertical 'conduits arrangedwithin the pocket alongside the sidewalls "and, deliveringto` saidoutlet openings in the 'side walls, each of said conduitshaving openingsarranged at different elevations and on different sides thereof,inwardly openingl valves controlling saiduopenings in the cony duits,and means in the upper end of the pocket whereby either of the conduitsor the 'pocket exterior of the* conduits maybe charged with coal,including means for delivering coalinto the vtop of the pocket.V

2. A coal holding and delivering pocket having "side walls'provided withoutlet openiso y ings, vertical conduits arranged within the pocketalongside the side walls and delivering to said outlet openings in theside walls, each of said conduits having openings arranged at diiferentelevations and on different sides thereof, inwardly opening valvescontrolling said openings in the conduits, and means in the upper end ofthe pocket whereby either of the conduits or the pocket exterior of theconduits may be charged with coal, including a valve controlling theinlet of each conduit, both of said valves controlling the inlet of theupper end of the pocket exterior of the conduits, and means fordelivering coal into the top 15 of the pocket.

Witness my hand this 13th day of J anuary, 1909, at New York, N. Y.

GROVE D. CURTIS. lVitnesses:

WILLIAM R. BAIRD, HERMAN MEYER.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing'the Commissioner of Patents.

Washington, D. C.

